Wedding Eve
by brontefanatic
Summary: Set near the beginning of the Reckoning AU: On the eve of their marriage - Kahlan ponders on the loss of Richard and her bleak future with Darken Rahl.
1. The Bridge of Time

** Wedding's Eve - The Bridge of Time**

_Where are you this moment?  
>only in my dreams.<br>You're missing, but you're always  
>a heartbeat from me.<br>I'm lost now without you,  
>I don't know where you are.<br>I keep watching, I keep hoping,  
>but time keeps us apart.<em>

Is there a way I can find you,  
>is there a sign I should know,<br>is there a road I could follow  
>to bring you back home?<p>

Winter lies before me  
>now you're so far away.<br>In the darkness of my dreaming  
>the light of you will stay.<p>

If I could be close beside you  
>If I could be where you are<br>If I could reach out and touch you  
>and bring you back home<br>Is there a way I can find you  
>Is there a sign I should know<br>Is there a road I could follow  
>to bring you back home to me.<p>

-Enya

* * *

><p>During the past weeks, the People's Palace had become a bustle of activity, but no longer around preparation for battle, but in preparation for the first royal nuptials in more than four generations.<p>

Lord Darken Rahl was getting married to the Mother Confessor. Finally, the endless war was coming to an end due to the bargain Kahlan Amnell had made with her arch enemy.

Kahlan had lost everyone she loved. Richard and Zedd had been killed before her eyes by the monstrous women who attended Lord Rahl. Dennee had been murdered with the other Confessors at Valeria.

She had lost any remaining hope in this life, and, at first, Kahlan had only longed for a quick death at the hands of her captor. She and Richard could thus be reunited in the Underworld for all eternity.

Then Shota had revealed the vision that had changed everything. While Richard might be lost to Kahlan, he wasn't dead, but had only been thrown into the future by the magic of Orden. He would never be part of the life Kahlan would be forced to endure for the next half century, if she even survived that long. But she was willing to make that sacrifice.

And now it was the eve of the great event.

With numb disinterest, Kahlan observed the servants scurrying about in preparation for the great occasion.

Expressionless, moving like an automaton throughout the afternoon, Kahlan had turned about at the direction of the seamstress as they fitted her with the finest D'Haran red brocade, and as her other attendants fussed and fretted over her hairstyle. Finally, pleading a headache, weary to death of their chatter, Kahlan had dismissed them all.

For this one night, she demanded, and was granted, solitude.

For one last time, she would have Richard to herself.

Lord Darken Rahl, her future husband, had, earlier that evening, over a tense dinner, throughout which Kahlan could not force down a single morsel of food, presented her with a ring, ear-drops and bracelet of glittering sapphires. Only such flawless blue gems, he had declared, could set off his future wife's eyes and complexion to perfection. Neither of them mentioned the fact that her throat was already adorned with the Rada'han that suppressed her magic.

She had expressed no gratitude for the gifts, and he had seemed to expect none. For some strange reason, during the days leading up to their marriage, Lord Rahl did not indulge in the gloating Kahlan had expected over his victory, but had seemed almost tentative in her presence

After they had supped, Darken Rahl had given Kahlan a chaste kiss on the cheek, and in the tradition of all expectant grooms, had left his bride alone to contemplate the coming day when her life would change forever.

After the door had closed behind him, Kahlan dragged herself over to the casement with weary steps, and sat gazing out at the snow that had been falling constantly since morning.

Her heart felt like a leaden weight in her chest.

Like ice.

A frozen bride for a winter wedding.

As Kahlan traced her slender finger through the fog her breath formed on the glass, her thoughts flew to Richard.

Although she believed Shota's words with the fervency of desperation, Kahlan found it difficult to imagine where Richard might be.

Had he already arrived in that distant future, fifty-eight years hence? Was he searching for Kahlan even now as she sat thinking about him?

Or was Richard wandering in a twilight limbo like the one Kahlan felt encasing her?

If Kahlan died before Richard's arrival, and he discovered Kahlan's tomb beside that of her despised husband, would he judge her, thinking that she had broken faith with him?

Would he ever believe that, in spite of everything, she had loved him through time?

If only she could feel Richard's presence with her now. If she could bring to mind his beloved face, his warmth, his loving eyes, his laughter. But he felt so distant – like a shadow.

Shota had been right, the granite wall of time separated Kahlan from Richard, and she had realized as soon as the witch had spoken those words, that there was only one way she would ever be able to bridge that wall.

There was only one path Kahlan could follow that would bring Richard back to her.

But it was such a lonely path, and such a long one. Her soul shivered to think on it.

For Richard's sake, Kahlan must not lose hope.

Her daughter would be their path.

That child would bridge the wall of time, and would bring Kahlan's dear love back to her.

Until then, Kahlan could only endure, holding her secret close to her heart, praying that on those nights when she lay in frigid silence beside her husband, Richard would return to her in her dreams.


	2. Love's Fool

This is the companion piece to **Wedding Eve - The Bridge of Time**

**Title: Wedding Eve - Love's Fool  
>Length: <strong>890~**  
>Rating: <strong>T**  
>Warning: <strong>None**  
>Pairing: <strong>Darken/Kahlan**  
>Inspired by: Love changes Everything <strong>by** Andrew Lloyd Webber  
>Spoilers:<strong> Up through the beginning of Reckoning**  
>Summary: <strong>Before his wedding to Kahlan, Darken reflects on how his victory has rung hollow, and how he has changed.****

**Love changes Everything.**  
><em>Love,<br>Love changes everything:  
>Hands and faces,<br>Earth and sky,  
>Love,<br>Love changes everything:  
>How you live and<br>How you die_

_Love  
>Can make the summer fly,<br>Or a night  
>Seem like a lifetime.<em>

_Yes, Love,  
>Love changes everything:<br>Now I tremble  
>At your name.<br>Nothing in the  
>World will ever<br>Be the same._

_Love,  
>Love changes everything:<br>Days are longer,  
>Words mean more.<em>

_Love,  
>Love changes everything:<br>Pain is deeper  
>Than before.<em>

_Love  
>Will turn your world around,<br>And that world  
>Will last forever.<em>

_Yes, Love,  
>Love changes everything,<br>Brings you glory,  
>Brings you shame.<br>Nothing in the world  
>Will ever be the same.<em>

_Off  
>Into the world we go,<br>Planning futures,  
>Shaping years.<br>Love,  
>Bursts in, and suddenly<br>All our wisdom  
>Disappears.<em>

_Love  
>Makes fools of everyone:<br>All the rules  
>We make are broken.<em>

_Yes, Love,  
>Love changes everyone.<br>Live or perish in its flame.  
>Love will never,<br>Never let you  
>Be the same.<em>

_-Andrew Lloyd Webber_

**Wedding Eve – Love's Fool**

Darken Rahl had no memory of being loved or of giving it. He must have had a mother once who might have loved him, but he had always held the uneasy suspicion that his vague memories of her were built more on wishful fantasy than reality.

From the days of his earliest infancy Darken's father had viewed him with hatred and fear, already influenced by the prophecy of his inevitable evil.

The only reliable source of affection in Darken's life had been General Egremont, who, in his gruff, understated way, had tried to act as a buffer between Darken and his father, and later, after Panis Rahl's death, had continued to serve as a loyal and unflappable sounding board for Darken's ideas, strategies and occasional tantrums.

Mistress Cara might have cared for Darken, he wasn't really sure. After all, as a Mord'Sith, serving him was her sworn duty. He did know that she had loved Dahlia, probably more than she had ever cared for him. And now, she was dead and gone, just as was Darken's brother, the Seeker of Truth.

No. Love was a weakness Darken could not afford. From everything he had seen, it brought only pain and humiliation in its wake.

At West Granthia, Darken had been exultant, claiming the Mother Confessor as his own. She was his prize, his well-earned reward for all the years spent fearing the brother who had been conceived for the sole purpose of killing him.

Ever since Darken had seen Kahlan in the Con Dar, Darken had been enthralled by Kahlan Amnell's beauty and fire. The fact that she had been doing her utmost to kill him over the past year made her only more irresistible.

He liked spirit in a woman.

When Kahlan had first spurned Darken's proposal of marriage, he had been unfazed. Now that he held all the cards, as well as the Sword of Truth, he could afford to be patient.

Once she had been brought before him a few days later, worn and bedraggled, her hair a tangled mess, her beauty still undimmed, Darken had readily agreed to all of her terms – most of which he had already offered during his initial proposal.

Her only obligation was to be his wife in every way.

When Kahlan had coldly informed him that she would always despise him, Darken had only shrugged. Perhaps she would, perhaps she wouldn't. It really didn't matter. She belonged to him now.

She would stand at his side, bear his heir, and reflect his glory.

But things were not turning out as he had planned.

As the wedding day approached, Darken was coming to understand that he did not just want to possess Kahlan's cold unresponsive body in their marriage bed. He wanted her heart and soul as well.

Darken wanted Kahlan to give freely to him what she had once given to his accursed brother.

Darken wanted her to love him, even though he wasn't even sure of the meaning of the word. He knew that there was a part of him that was starved for lack of warmth, tenderness, gentleness – qualities he had never experienced and once had scorned.

But how could Kahlan, his reluctant bride, the prisoner shackled by the Raha'han around her throat, ever feel any of these things for him? How could she feel anything for Darken but hatred?

Darken found himself wanting to unburden himself to her, to pour out all of his transgressions and regrets that had dogged him over the years. But what would have been the use?

Kahlan already knew his transgressions all too well, and he was certain that she would never be interested in the secrets of his heart.

Any time Darken did attempt to speak with his bride-to-be, her eyes would go dead, her features hardening into an expression of disgust.

One week before the wedding, Darken had swallowed his pride and ventured into her sitting room, determined to actually try to converse with her – to ask about her childhood, to share his own; to try to find some common ground between them. Before the first words had left his lips, he knew it was hopeless. Kahlan had only looked past him blankly, assuring him that she had no interest in how he had become a monster, and informing him that she would fulfill all her duties as his queen – nothing more and nothing less.

He had left feeling like a fool.

Darken hated this feeling of being at the mercy of another person's regard.

He hated the fact that despite being a king, this woman could make him feel so worthless.

Every effort to please was wasted on her.

Darken knew now that Kahlan would always love only Richard, and that if, and when, she ever called out a name in the night, it would not be Darken's name.

It pierced him to the heart he had always believed to be impervious to emotion.

But what surprised Darken the most, as the wedding approached, was that none of this mattered as to his feelings for her. He would accept the pain, would not give up trying to win her, would acknowledge her grounds for disdain despite the humiliation.

His growing feelings for Kahlan had destroyed all the certainties Darken had once held true, the rules that had always governed his life.

She had changed his world completely.

Tomorrw was the wedding day that Darken had once hoped would bring him everything he had ever wanted. He knew now that it would only be a beginning, and that there would probably not be a happy ending.

He only knew that whatever happened between them during their marriage, even if Kahlan hated him for the rest of his life, Darken had, against his will, been changed forever.


End file.
